ONLINE TEACHING RESOURCES

Keep scrolling, for some Quick Tips… and some humor!

Quick Tips 

Online teaching isn't inherently better or worse than the face-to-face variety — just different.

There was a time when professors would have avoided online teaching like the plague. And now, our latest plague — in the form of a new coronavirus — is forcing any last resisters on the faculty into the online classroom. In this hurried transition, a lot of academics will be as overwhelmed as their students.

But keep in mind: Plenty of faculty members have moved into online teaching well before this global health crisis and found much there to enhance their courses and teaching. And eventually, you may, too. In the meantime, consider:

• Online teaching isn't less time-consuming than the traditional kind. All too often, we hear online teaching framed in terms of "efficiency." But good teaching via technology takes time, too.

• Above all, presence matters in the online realm. Online courses may be asynchronous, but they don't have to be impersonal or atomized. There are plenty of ways to build and maintain a meaningful presence for both you and your students. 

Whatever you ultimately do to shift your courses online during the Covid-19 crisis, look for ways to be yourself via technology, just as you would in person.

A primary means of communication in an online course is the written word. But a wall of text can be dry and dehumanizing. The solution is not to post a long video of yourself delivering a standard lecture. The physical energy gets lost in that medium, too. Instead, capture your personality and passion in ways that are different from what you might do in person, yet authentic:

• You needn't write in a detached tone. Rather, practice immediacy. Written content is inevitably part of any online course, but strive to use a unique voice in your writing. Mini-lectures, assignment instructions, answers to questions, weekly announcements — you can write those in such a way as to represent your true self. Infuse your writing with warmth and support.
• Recording yourself whenever possible is another great way to bring your whole self to class. Whether by audio or video, capture your expertise, your empathy, your teacher persona in a way that comes across with more impact than in writing (again, I don't mean long videos of you lecturing). These short recordings don't have to be professionally produced. Start small by recording a quick greeting. Many learning-management systems include a built-in feature to record audio and video.  

Your well-being as a faculty member is a pedagogical issue, and it affects how you teach in a college classroom.

Even in the best of times, good teaching is emotional work — requiring reserves of patience and ingenuity that are all too often depleted in overworked faculty members. Add in the extreme stress of a new coronavirus and an abrupt pivot to online teaching, and you have a recipe for faculty exhaustion.

Of course there are things colleges can and should be doing to help their professors avoid burnout. But there are also steps you can take to protect your well-being in this period of high stress:

• Choose sleep over extra class-prep time. Sleep deprivation can lead to high levels of anxiety, poor decision-making, lack of energy, and lack of concentration. All of your capabilities are needed to be a good teacher, and your fully functioning brain is worth far more than reviewing those readings one more time or working out every detail of your lesson plan, especially at a time you may be struggling with technology and trying to help a lot of anxious students.
• Say "no" more frequently than you would have a month ago. This is a time to take a hard look at your work commitments, both formal and informal, and ask yourself if you absolutely have to do all of them.  

SOURCE: The Chronicle of Higher Education

And if you’ve made it this far, you can play Online teaching bingo!